Imagine the NFL with no draft, no salary cap, inflated rosters, and a four team play-off for the Super Bowl.
Imagine that and you have college football today. You would have four super powers playing for the Super Bowl every year. You would have televisions being turned off across the nation, advertising revenue would start to dry up, and you'd never see teams rise from the ashes. The NCAA has created a major problem and they are going to need to figure it out fast. Now that the super powers have been established the highest recruits will continue to poor into those couple of schools. People say just win and you can join the group but there should not be anybody left out there that doesn't realize that teams loaded with 4 and 5 stars will regularly thump those that have mostly 3 and 4 star recruits. Nick Saban is not the worlds greatest coach because he takes 3* players to the CFP year in and year out. Look no further than his MSU or Miami Dolphin stints. He was able to build a mecca recruiting system at SEC schools with relaxed admission standards early on and now it's just a matter of inviting kids to come join the party. Good players look even better when they are surrounded by other good players so of course now the top ranked recruits see the super powers as their ticket to the pros. It's going to be very interesting to see if the NCAA can figure out the answer to the problem they created before they totally ruin the sport. I predict it will probably get worse before it gets better as there are always a few guys that flew under the radar in high school and surprise people at the start of their college careers. Now that the transfer rules are relaxed, those players will start to jump to the super powers once they are discovered. Unfortunately, it's apparent we missed that window of opportunity. If Harbaugh would have come in and made a big splash and beaten OSU early on he might have been able to sneak inside that elite group. Unfortunately it now appears we will continue to be on the outside looking in. Just my opinion. Interested if anybody thinks they have an answer to how this problem could be fixed.
January 2nd, 2021 at 8:54 AM ^
This ground has been plowed on this blog quite a bit recently. The simplest answer remains:
Expand the playoff - increase the number of relevant teams.
January 2nd, 2021 at 9:28 AM ^
And please stop giving Notre Dame so much credit for their "tough schedule". They have good teams but this year and the previous 2 appearances, they were not in the top 4.
January 2nd, 2021 at 2:18 PM ^
ACC is junk. Clemson and pseudo member ND are the only 2 good teams. The biggest joke of the playoffs in the 7 years has been ND making it twice, giving the weakest conference 2 teams. This year both teams only good win was against each other and both made it and promptly got crushed.
January 2nd, 2021 at 2:41 PM ^
The only credit I can give ND this year is that they did play in a conference championship game. I never thought I’d see the day that would happen.
The NFL system fails as well though. Their terrible divisions puts horrible teams in the playoff hunt while a strong division excludes a good team. The NFL should expand the playoffs as well.
January 2nd, 2021 at 9:39 AM ^
The simplest answer remains the opposite: get rid of the playoff and go back to the bowl system. I never cared one second during the bowl era for the argument that "aargh every other sport has a playoff lets be like them." When we won the Rose Bowl and were named the mythical national champions I wouldn't have had one incremental shred of enjoyment if that instead had been a playoff victory. It was entirely as sweet. The bowl system favored regional football powers and thus deemphasized (somewhat) the advantages of an Alabama and Clemson now. What's wrong with no "true" national champs--who cares? It's a great sport with great regional rivalries and it was in many ways more enjoyable than its is today.
January 2nd, 2021 at 10:23 AM ^
Colleges care. The bowl system is boring. Nobody outside team relatives cares about watching 5-5 teams from the MAC playing 6-4 teams from the Sun Belt. The point of playing is winning, and it is ludicrous to say that 1997 wouldn’t have meant more historically if we’d thumped Nebraska rather than have the asterisk.
The answer is an expanded playoff system that includes all teams that have very good to great records. So what if teams get blown out by the elites—that doesn’t mean the elites should not have to prove it. Look at the pros, where the Patriots lost their perfect season to the Giants. That’s sport. That’s why they play the game. Even though Pats are dynasty, they lost that perfect season—that makes the game fun.
Look at OSU last night. Dabo talked shit. All the experts picked Clemson based on the shortened season. OSU throttled them.
Look at Cincy. They lost a close game to a team from the vaunted SEC that often competes in or is talked about as playoff caliber (including this year). If Cincy wins, why don’t they have a chance at Alabama? You think they’re players wouldn’t have wanted that? What about the Chaucers?
Win or lose, close or blow out, the actual game decides who moves on. That is sport. That is what is exciting.
An expanded playoff would arguably present more upsets, with more games and less time for the elite teams to focus studying on their opponents. And if there aren’t more upsets, then so be it—more football from the best teams. The teams that got shafted cannot then feel shafted. Win or be quiet.
January 2nd, 2021 at 11:37 AM ^
The bowl system as currently constructed is boring. It was not boring in the days prior to the BCS.
It’s too bad we never got to see what it would have been like with a Plus One game where the combatants were selected after the bowl games were played. I think that would have been the best of both worlds — bowl games would have maintained their glory and importance, while the people that needed their championship “settled on the field” would have been satiated.
January 2nd, 2021 at 11:38 AM ^
Nobody outside team relatives cares about watching 5-5 teams from the MAC playing 6-4 teams from the Sun Belt.
The playoffs don't change that though . . .
The thing is that under the old system, the entire regular season was the playoffs. Week 1 was extremely important because one loss would end your national title hopes right then and there.
If we expand to 8, then all the teams that end up ranked around 10 are going to bitch about how they should have got in and not norte dame. So then we expand to 16. Then all the teams around 20 will complain that they should have gotten in and not norte dame. Then a few years after that, we go to 32 teams . . .
So idk maybe we'll eventually end up with a 128-team bracket? And then they'll say well it sucks for your season to end in week 7 the first round of the playoffs so they'll just make it a 12 week season and the top two teams play in the championship game. And then teams ranked 3-5 will bitch and . . .
January 2nd, 2021 at 3:12 PM ^
Yeah, they’ll bitch, just like some bubble basketball teams complain. So what?
The reason to expand the playoff is because it would be more fun. More teams would have something to play for. Are you having fun with a 4-team playoff?
January 3rd, 2021 at 9:33 AM ^
My problem with more teams (and I know it's a minority view) is that I don't want an 8 seed with 2, or worse 3, losses upsetting a no loss team. That invalidates the regular season and actually does not have the best team winning. The best teams are the ones who proved themselves best over the whole season, not those that get hot at the end
January 2nd, 2021 at 11:00 AM ^
I agree with this completely. Once the Big 10 and the Pac 10 agreed to join the BCS I knew college football was going to head in the wrong direction.
January 2nd, 2021 at 2:11 PM ^
You can't put the genie back in the bottle. We're never going to back to having a bunch of different bowl games involving top 5 teams and a vote to decide the champion.
The playoff is the new normal. As such, it only makes sense now to expand it. The Bama/Clemson/OSU show (with one guest star) is stale.
January 2nd, 2021 at 8:55 AM ^
College football is starting to die a slow death. Staying with 4 playoff teams in the current season will continue that slow death. I’m not saying exanding the playoffs will fix everything but giving more programs a shot at it will help recruiting efforts.
January 2nd, 2021 at 1:55 PM ^
Are we saying that a system where rich gets richer, players have no representation and the powerful few make/break their own rules is somehow worse than a system where the rich gets taxed heavily, players have strong unions, and poor teams are helped out every year by getting priority (draft)???
Color me surprised....
January 2nd, 2021 at 8:55 AM ^
I love college football but haven't watched the playoff games the past few years and have no plans on doing so anytime soon. It's boring. Hopefully NIL shakes things up at the top. Saban retiring in the next few years wouldn't hurt either.
January 2nd, 2021 at 8:58 AM ^
Saban is retiring in the next few years? According to who?
January 2nd, 2021 at 10:00 AM ^
According to Father Time...
January 2nd, 2021 at 11:42 AM ^
A few = generally 3 years
The most demanding job in the world has a man at age 78 about to start a 4 year term/ the ageist assumption you are making sounds like nothing more than an assumption. Saban at 69 looks to have a lot left in the tank. This may seem like a passive aggressive political shot - but who between Saban and Biden seems to have the likelihood to successfully do a demanding job up to (and now necessarily beyond) age 80?
January 2nd, 2021 at 2:51 PM ^
Didn't state it as fact. Don't think it's unreasonable to suggest a coach in his late 60s who has accomplished all there is to accomplish would retire in the coming years.
January 2nd, 2021 at 9:07 AM ^
NIL will likely shakes some things up but I do not believe it offers everything that is required to restore a healthy competitive balance to college football.
January 2nd, 2021 at 9:12 AM ^
NIL probably results in a more locked-down hegemony where the rich get richer (the very problem we are all bemoaning about the current status of college football). The thing that gives us hope about NIL is that it provides Michigan with improved chances of joining the ranks of the elite.
January 2nd, 2021 at 9:22 AM ^
Agreed. Not sure Preston Hutchinson will make much signing autographs at the EMU student center or that Tower Inn will pony up to hire him as a spokesman. Maybe if NCAA football returns every player in the game can be cut a small check for their image.
January 2nd, 2021 at 11:21 AM ^
Saban isn't retiring......... any time soon. He's only 69.
Joe Pa coached until he was 84; Bobby Bowden until 80.
January 2nd, 2021 at 12:29 PM ^
Different times.
Very few 70+ HCs left in CFB anymore.
Not saying it is right or wrong. Just saying that this is the way CFB happens to be right now.
January 2nd, 2021 at 12:30 PM ^
Yes, JoePa “coached” until he was 84. He was nothing more than a figurehead those last couple years.
January 2nd, 2021 at 12:50 PM ^
He sat up in the press-box, presumably wearing diapers. He perfected the art of appearing to not know where he was.
January 2nd, 2021 at 1:14 PM ^
“COME TO PENN STATE!!!!!!!!!!!!’”
January 2nd, 2021 at 1:52 PM ^
I always liked JoePa and was glad to see a top tier program like Penn State join the Big Ten. I thought it was a good fit then, and it still appears be (unlike Nebraska, Maryland and Rutgers).
The Sandusky incident was horrible, that goes without saying. Still unfortunate how things ended for JoePa, even if he was wearing diapers in the Press Box.
January 2nd, 2021 at 9:04 AM ^
This is much in line with what I just posted on the next thread down. If the CFP would be expanded and star limits placed on recruiting the health of college football could be restored quickly and easily. Competitive balance should be a high priority for college sports. The current system is a great disservice to not only the fans and the schools but also to the players. There are simple solutions here.
January 2nd, 2021 at 9:22 AM ^
Star limits placed on recruiting... LOL for so many reasons!
January 2nd, 2021 at 9:56 AM ^
I also posted something similar in the previous post. They need to expand the playoffs but they need to figure out a way to level the playing field and that comes down to recruiting and who signs with each time. Not sure you can do it though as you would be telling kids where they can go and can’t go. That basically how you have parity in professional sports with cap limits and how drafts work but not sure you can imply it to college football
January 2nd, 2021 at 9:06 AM ^
Simple solutions:
- Allow players to make money on their own images (removes the "bag man" issue, somewhat)
- Lower the # of scholarships a bit (spreads good players around more)
- Add more teams to a playoff (increases those who can get to the top)
Also possible: Just wait. Eventually, Alabama won't be coached by Saban; eventually (I think), OSU will strike out on a coaching hire; eventually, Dabo will lose his edge. But this strategy may take a little too long.
January 2nd, 2021 at 9:08 AM ^
Michigan, and other teams, need to get better at football. Then we can stop complaining about the systems that expose how we are not as good as we’d like to be.
January 2nd, 2021 at 9:20 AM ^
Yes they need to get better but we are talking about helping the sport as a whole. The sport will continue dying. No one cares about the bowls except the bowl reps and old timers because that’s what they remember.
I don’t think lowering the scholarships are the answer. IMO the more teams able to get into the playoffs helps that programs recruiting.
January 2nd, 2021 at 9:40 AM ^
Adding more teams to the playoff will do nothing to help teams compete with the one Goliath in their conference.
Just like the CFP devalued the bowl season, expanding it will expand that effect to the regular season.
Enforcing current recruiting rules will solve the problem.
January 2nd, 2021 at 9:40 AM ^
That's right. For the next several years at least, three of the final four playoff teams will be Bama, Clemson & Osu. The rest of the bowl games are now irrelevant and just borderline silly given the multitude of shitty matchups and players opting out.
I would like to see CFB scrap the current bowl game structure and expand the playoff to 16. That's 15 games that can be played at the best bowl sites across the country.
January 2nd, 2021 at 9:46 AM ^
Giving 2,3,4 loss teams a playoff spot will not solve the problem. It will create new problems, like having coaches sit their starters in the final weeks of the regular season. Rivalry games will start seeing the same problem that we have now with non-playoff bowl games.
January 2nd, 2021 at 10:32 AM ^
So you you think it just trickles down?? Yeah not buying that. Depending on your schedule now the top teams can sit kids too.
Only thing destroying a rivalry game is consecutive losses.
January 2nd, 2021 at 10:53 AM ^
Yes, I think it will trickle down. Right now a loss at the end of the season makes it likely that you will miss the playoff. If you have 16 teams getting in and you are a top five team (or conference champ) another loss will not matter. So you rest your starters in the final week. Just like the NFL. Expanding the playoff will devalue the regular season.
January 2nd, 2021 at 9:08 AM ^
Power 5 conference champs, one Group of 5, two at-large. 8 teams.
January 2nd, 2021 at 9:28 AM ^
I despise teams not winning their own conference being able to call themselves national champs, but having an at large or 2 is a compromise to keep the amount of unworthy non champ teams down. I would top 7 conference champs with on at large. Either way, if you didn't win your conference, you shouldn't get home field advantage in the first round.
January 2nd, 2021 at 10:10 AM ^
Curious if this bothers you with college basketball as well? Or NFL? Yeah conference champs is important, and should give you advantages in the playoffs, but having more teams have a chance is what makes the postseason great. Seeing the occasional underdog advance is fun!
January 2nd, 2021 at 11:10 AM ^
It does bother me quite a bit. I haven't watched the NFL since the year the worst team to make the playoffs (The Giants) beat the undefeated Patriots in the Super Bowl. Now suddenly they,re the best team just didn't sit well with me especially since I knew they were not the better team. The patriots had already beaten them the last game of the regular season and would 9 out 10 times. I haven't watch even a minute since then.
For college basketball, I only watch Michigan games because I watch all things Michigan. I don't watch anything else during the season and not another game during the tournament. Once Michigan is out, I turn it off and don't watch anymore.
In college football, I'll watch games all season long because the regular season actually means something.
All full playoff sports should get rid of regular seasons and do like soccer and just have pools. The regular season is really meaningless when a 6th place team can be the champion. Since those sports are all about the playoff, make the season all about the playoff and use a pool system to determine your playoff.
January 2nd, 2021 at 9:14 AM ^
Let's not imagine this scenario and say we did.
January 2nd, 2021 at 9:14 AM ^
By the way, the hypothetical NFL that you describe is the only one I believe that urban M would have the stomach to enter as a head coach.
January 2nd, 2021 at 9:41 AM ^
Exactly. Saban and Meyer are excellent coaches, but they enter the elite level of college coaches because they cheat in recruiting. Can’t do that in the NFL.
January 2nd, 2021 at 9:25 AM ^
It’s happening slowly, but I’m trending away from college football every year. The playoff has already taken away the meaning of the regular season for the elite teams, who can usually lose one and make it in.
Expanding it to eight will allow more widely-considered elite or good teams a loss or two to still make the tourney. A big regular season upset just doesn’t matter as much anymore under those circumstances, and the excitement generated from the meaning of a big upset is what drew me into college football in the first place.
A conference champions tournament would preserve the regular season’s meaning, but that seems widely opposed as it’d likely keep some top-ranked teams from participating. But I can’t say an expanded tournament with at-large selected bids is going to wow me when I’m about to get that, but with far superior players, in a matter of days with the NFL. If we are diluting the uniqueness of college football’s regular season for a bigger post-season tournament, I guess I’ll just start watching the NFL, which already does it better.
January 2nd, 2021 at 10:07 AM ^
I used to watch every BCS title game. I have yet to watch a full playoff game. I'm with you, destroying the regular season by allowing non champs enter just eats me up. I would rather see top 8 conference champs play with the conference champions ship games being billed as the first round of the playoffs. I would find that way more interesting than what see now.
January 2nd, 2021 at 11:01 AM ^
Right, and I think a touted SEC juggernaut conference champ playing a lowly G5 champion in the first round rather than a potential at-large conference rematch should be a reward of sorts, rather than rewarding the at-large team that couldn’t get it done in October or November a second go. We’d still get an interesting final four and title game. Plus the G5 get their shot. There will be controversy when a highly-ranked conference runner-up doesn’t get in over an unranked G5 team, and people will eat it up. But at least it’ll all be decided on the field, for once.
January 2nd, 2021 at 9:27 AM ^
Great post.